During the second half of the 1980s, the tension that was created after the
1968 Soviet-led invasion in Czechoslovakia had eased, especially after the
introduction of Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika reforms in the Soviet
Union. The Czechoslovak leadership, however, still headed by Gustav Husak
who came to power after the '68 invasion, was suspicious of movements
intended to "reform communism from within" and continued to
embrace a hard line. But by 1988 there were organized demonstrations
demanding change and with the fall of the Berlin Wall and weakening
communist governments in other neighbouring countries, it was not to be
long before Czechoslovakia too would be freed from its oppressive regime.

November 17th 1989
Until 1989, November 17th had always marked student resistance against the
Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. On the morning of November 17th 1989,
students gathered at a traditional meeting at Charles University's
Karolinum to commemorate the death of Jan Opletal - a student who fell
victim to the Nazis fifty years earlier. On that morning, no one ever
dreamed that this day, which started out quietly and peacefully just like
any other day, would lead to the sudden downfall of the Communist
government. A peaceful legal student march that was to lead from Prague's
Vysehrad cemetery to Wenceslas Square later that day in protest at
oppressive regimes, was violently cracked down by police half way, on
National Street. Some 170 students were injured and rumour was that one
student was killed. Although it was later revealed false, the news of an
innocent death helped to gain massive support and soon resulted in mass
protest demonstrations from trade union workers and later average
citizens. On Friday, November 17th 1989 a brutal attack on a peaceful
student march triggered six short weeks of protest demonstrations that led
to the definite end of Communist control in Czechoslovakia. Vaclav
Bartuska, was a student leader at the time:

1989"Well, with every passing year, November 17 looks more and more like
a fairy tale because the change which happened here in this country in
1989 was so quick, fast and so unexpected by most of us that it's just
unbelievable. The country was so stable, so rigid, so boring before '89.
It looked like the change would never come, like we were stuck with
socialism for the rest of our lives and our children's lives, and the
whole thing crumbled in a few weeks time. So, today it looks more like a
miracle."

It was a sudden development that many historians still analyse today,
fourteen years later, to determine what actually triggered what Czechs
like to call the 'November Events'. Mr Bartuska has made a simple
conclusion:

"I am sure that the system would have crumbled with or without the
students, with or without the demonstrations, with or without November
17th. When you look at November 17th and the days after, what triggered
the whole change was basically very small action by a very limited number
of people. It was enough because the system was dead. The people didn't
believe in it and nobody wanted to defend it. People were simply fed up
and once the Soviet Union said with the new Gorbachev doctrine that they
would not intervene militarily, the system was dead and no one was willing
to defend it and that's it."

In 1988, Vaclav Bartuska - a twenty year old student at the time - was one
of the first academics to be arrested by the secret police, or StB, for
subversion of the state. Although never sent to prison, he was subjected
to intense interrogation for sixteen months, an experience which he made
use of to prepare his friends and fellow students for potential
interrogations. He soon gained a reputation of someone who was well
informed about StB proceedings and was therefore the first student allowed
to gain full access to the secret police files when communist control
crumbled:

1989, Vaclav Havel"I think the biggest surprise for me was that no matter how much
information the secret police collected and passed over to the Communist
regime, to the top Communists, the leadership of the country did not pay
attention. They did not want to hear the bad news. So, the biggest
surprise for me was the sheer amount of information which was collected,
processed, digested, and then put into facts and files, which nobody read.
That was interesting. What was also interesting was that after all those
years of abuse and unlimited power of the Communist secret police was that
many of the people who worked there didn't know how to work as a real
intelligence service. They were just so used to the power they had that
once they couldn't just come into a place, show their badge and say 'tell
me everything you know', they were just absolutely blocked out."

The Communist leaders were completely unprepared for the massive protests.
The dissident initiative, the Civic Forum, led by writer Vaclav Havel, was
enjoying more and more public support, which gave it enough power to make
demands to the Communists. After several weeks of political reform, Gustav
Husak publicly resigned on December 10, 1989. The Communist government had
fallen, paving the way to the establishment of a new democratic
Czechoslovakia.